Leo Gura

Everything will remain exactly as it is. Except for you.

@LetTheNewDayBegin Firstly, our universe is not the same as all of reality itself. Consider: what you know of as "our universe" is an infinitesimal part of reality. Secondly, that is not what is meant by infinity. Infinity is not a size thing. It's not a matter of measuring the universe's perimeter to discover whether the perimeter is or is not finite. Every physical thing is by definition finite, including the universe. What we mean by infinite is an "object" of actually infinite nature, which means it has no properties whatsoever, and therefore it isn't even an object, nor does it exist nor non-exist. It is Nothing. All of reality as a whole is an infinite non-object, object. Within that are found an infinite number of finite objects, including our universe. All of it neither exists nor doesn't exist. That's why it's called "nonduality". Everything is so ONE that even existence and non-existence collapse into one.

@Arizzi It's more his penchant for debating with people and trying to fit everything into a rational box.

@Beyond Words It all depends on your values and level of consciousness. At low levels of consciousness it of course makes sense to lie and manipulate and use force. At higher levels of consciousness it makes less and less and less sense. As the Buddha supposedly said, dust thrown into the wind comes back in your face. You are free to lie, manipulate, and even kill. But all your actions have consequences. It's a lot easier to run a low consciousness business than a high consciousness business. That's for sure. Which is perhaps why most spiritually accomplished folks aren't billionaires. Ruthlessness and selfishness is a virtue in our current business world. When I did IM, I did what I did because my level of consciousness was where it was at that time. And I did pay a price for it psychologically, spiritually, and even in terms of my physical health.

@Lynnel Start with very low doses.

@Franz When you understand why, when you eat a banana you don't eat the peel, you'll understand why, when I eat mushrooms, I don't eat the flesh.

@Lynnel Tripping takes faith and courage, and a reverence for truth. If you cannot sooth and contain your fears, then you probably shouldn't be tripping. You always start very lite with doses. Like 1g of dried mushrooms. You won't see any demons or aliens on 1g of mushrooms. Not even close. Even on 5g of mushrooms you shouldn't see any entities. But 5g will certainly be a mindfuck in other ways. There's nothing really scary there, unless your mind takes it as such. The psychedelic simply reflects your own attitude back at you. So if you're scared of the world, you will be scared. If you're a peace with the world, and you've done work on yourself, you will be dazzled and overcome with love. It's sorta like heaven and hell. Sinners go to hell. So if you've been a deep sinner your whole life, watch out with tripping. You'll be in for some rude awakenings. If you've been a saint your whole life, tripping will be easy. You'll have little to account for. Your heart will be light. Bad trips are directly proportional to how much you cling to ego, and how closedminded you are.

@Space I would say both. Getting even 5 seconds of true not-knowing is so hard and rare. It takes real work. When you actually hit that point, enlightenment is like seconds away. You'll feel it. Terror will arise in your body. You will feel very noticeable progress in your inquiry. Like you discovered how to REALLY inquire for the first time. All prior inquiry will seem like mental masturbation by comparison. It's like you're trying to jailbreak your phone, and the old OS just keeps blocking your hacks over and over again, until finally you're right on the cusp of hacking the old OS totally out of the way. And in that moment, all defenses go down, and you sense the seriousness of that. It feels like you're about to brick your brain.

@Seed I said that, because that's what you needed to hear Until you've experienced the Absolute, you have no frame of reference from which to question it. My questions in this post are of a speculative, pushing-the-edge-of-my-knowledge type questions. I wouldn't give this as advice to newbies.

@oysterman Hehehe.... well of course! That's what enlightenment is all about. You will cease to exist! What did you think would happen? Rainbows and butterflies? The ego is not going to like enlightenment one bit. Luckily, once it's out of the way, everything is great.

@Seeker_of_truth The most important aspects of the wounded ego to fix are: Low self-esteem Victim mentality, refusing to take 100% responsibility for your life. Drama, making everything into stories Negative self-talk Childhood trauma, abuse, rape, etc. Mommy and Daddy issues Hard addictions like drugs, sex, food, etc. Depression, nihilism, anger, jealousy, greed, pettiness Neediness for love or approval Sexual repression, guilt, moralization Lying, cheating, stealing Religious indoctrination, severe closedmindness, ideologicalness Basically, therapy work.

@OnceMore The point is to show you how dishonest you actually are most of the time. That it horrifies you, should give you a good idea how much growing up you still have to do. Notice the horror as you see that your entire lifestyle is sustained by hundreds of lies every day. And then you wonder why you're not happy? Well, that's one big reason. Figuring out how to live an honest life is no easy thing. It might mean radically changing things. Which is of course why you see the technique as so impractical. Your whole lifestyle was architected as a house of cards. Which are glued together with lies. So of course you will feel extremely threatened when someone suggests taking your glue gun away. It IS a very difficult technique to execute for the average Western lifestyle. Because everything from our families, to our marriages, to our careers, is built on lies. Imagine what your life would have to be like, if you made a vow to never tell another lie again in your life? It's a very illuminating thought-experiment. Now realize, some people ACTUALLY life that way. For real. Do you think they are happy or unhappy people?

How convenient, lol

It will get worse before it gets better. But as you get deeper into this work, and you fully grasp the depth of your own ignorance about reality, you will end up with a very deep compassion for the ignorance of our culture. Because you will understand that there is no "it". It is YOU! You are the ignorance you abhor. The infinite love of God will wash all that out of your heart. If only you can glimpse it for but 1 minute.

@Cammy You already are without everyone. You just aren't conscious of it. Not only is there not Other, there is no Self. So there's nothing to worry about. But you need to REALLY experience this, not just think about it or believe it. All your beliefs are NOT growth. They are obstacles to growth. When you finally realize that reality is nondual and no sentient entities actually exist, including yourself, you will be very much relieved and overjoyed beyond imagination. Your true nature is far bigger and cooler than if you were in an orgy with all 7 billion people on this planet. You will experience more love all alone than 7 billion people could give you if they all married you. WAAAAAY, WAAAAAY more love! So much love, you could not imagine it in your wildest dreams. So much love it will physically pain your body, sending you into convulsions, and horrifying your mind with its sheer immensity. Muster the courage to actually work toward the Truth. Trusting that it will give you everything you've ever desired, and a billion times more. So much more, you will be knocked on the floor, weeping tears of joy and gratitude.

Classic hero's journey. Everyone is on the spiritual path all the time. Most people just die never realizing it.

@Steph1988 Yes, I'm sure it looks that way from your POV. I just can't communicate to you how I come to these conclusions. They integrate hundreds of sources and 1000s of hours of practice. The only way for you to really understand is to walk the path yourself. I have made a career out of personal development, but the difference is, I understand that all my words are not the Truth. And my career in personal development will be short-lived. I am not kidding about the black hole effect. It's very real. And it is already happening to me. At some point, you may just find me sitting alone in a cave in silence. Come say Hi, but don't expect any answers. When you get far enough down the rabbit hole, you'll understand why it must be this way.

Don't just post bald links please. Explain what you're posting and why you're posting it.

@Loreena Realize it and tell me.

Careful with your logic and assumptions. The Buddhists describe a meditative state called: Neither-perception-nor-not-perception. It's clearly there to be cognized. Go cognize it and report back to us. Discover what is beyond experience, beyond world, beyond death, beyond self.

Some decent books on there, but just scanning over the list, I can see it will be way too academic and get you very little actual growth. Following some academics is great, but don't get too carried away with them. They are ultimately lost in mind, and their entire careers and livelihoods hinge on that, so they will not lead you very far in your own development, because if they were far in their own development, they would stop being academics. Sounds harsh of me to say, but it's just the practical reality of current academia. You will not find happiness there. Crusading against postmodernists (or anyone for that matter) is the red flag here. Conscious people do not crusade.

You can only expect so much from your academics. Don't expect them to be mystics. It's hazardous to their careers.

The whole notion is ridiculous, because by that logic, how did the first people become enlightened? Clearly they had no human gurus. There are many people who have become enlightened completely on their own, without any gurus or guidance. What's True is True regardless of gurus or any other social/cultural stuff. By blindly following a guru, even if you get enlightened, you will be a sheep, spewing dogma left and right. Because you didn't actually rely on any intelligent process to get enlightenment. You just rolled the dice and got lucky. Even if you get lucky, you will still be a sheep. The whole problem of religion in a nutshell: No one wants to really do the work by themselves. Everyone wants a crutch, some Daddy figure to guide you by the hand to the Truth. Good luck with that. You might as well just suck on your guru's tit instead of gathering your own food.

A healthy is ego is one that is willing to agree to annihilate itself, and does so of its own wisdom, without being prodded into it. An unhealthy ego is one which is unwilling to acknowledge its own unreality and its own shenanigans.

Interesting post. Not sure about all the other stuff, but definitely going 24/7 mindfulness beast mode will get you there much quicker. That is the main advantage of monks and doing meditation retreats. 1 hour of daily meditation is not sufficient to really become conscious. That's more like a newbie or maintenance dose. The issue is not that people don't know how to get to enlightenment fast, it's that they don't really want to. They are busy with life and don't want to drop everything. Congrats on awakening.